


Sue Begins

by Angelic_flame1509



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:47:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23984794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Angelic_flame1509/pseuds/Angelic_flame1509
Summary: An insight into Sue’s life before becoming a 9-1-1 dispatcher.
Kudos: 6





	Sue Begins

**Author's Note:**

> I think Sue is one of the most underrated characters. She’s always there for Maddie and I think we need to see more of them together.
> 
> also I’m sorry this is really bad, I just wanted to write it so I might do another one at some point in the future that isn’t as bad

Sue had always been independent. From a young age, her parents left her at their apartment pretty much by herself most nights while they were working long shifts at the city hospital, under the supervision of Carrie, the local babysitter who just watched the TV for the whole time she was supposedly ‘babysitting’. 

Sue would sit at the dining room so Carrie could keep an eye on her when either of her parents would ring during their breaks. 

Of course Sue resented then for a long time, hating them for sticking her with Carrie Tarvey, who wouldn’t help her with her homework, make her dinner, do some chores, or even be a friend. Sue hates it, but she knew she could do nothing about it, just stay at home, bored and lonely. 

By the age of nine, Sue had learnt how to cook, not the best cooking, but meals that were definitely more functional than Carrie’s takeout choices and Mrs Green from no. 4’s frozen bolognese. Sue had spent her Saturday afternoons at the local library, looking at cookbooks and occasionally taking one out with her library card, which Mrs Green had help her set up. A few of the other kids at school thought it was cool that she knew how to cook, asking their parents if they could too, others were jealous that not only could Sue get the best marks in the tests but she also knew how to cook. ‘At least their parents don’t work all the time.’ was Sue’s response, but she never said it out loud, not wanting to be the reason if her parents got called out of work to come to the school. She couldn’t do that to them, they loved their work too much and Sue knew that one day she would love working at a hospital as much as her parents did. 

By the time she was 15, Sue had her life sorted out. She was top of her class at school and spent her time after school either doing school work, with her friends, or with her boyfriend, Stewart.

Stewart was the school’s heartthrob, captain of the school’s baseball team and almost always had the leading male roles for the school productions - he didn’t get Romeo for Romeo and Juliet because didn’t want to kiss a girl who wasn’t Sue and played Corny Collins in Hairspray instead of Link Larkin because of the same reason.

Sue’s parents approved greatly of Stewart and would often allow them to ring each other every Saturday when they weren’t allowed to go on dates. 

He would tell her everyday that she had the most wonderful voice at the end of every single one their calls, totalling it to over 50 times, until Stewart decided to end it, saying that his family were leaving town and they probably would never see each other again.

Sue hid her sadness for a long time, focusing on exams and getting into medical school to train to be a doctor. She hadn’t even thought about him for months until her first day of Med School.

He was there. Standing in the corner with some of the other guys, a tall black man with dreadlocks and a small lad with platinum blonde hair, getting to know each other, speaking so loudly that the whole room could hear. 

“So Stewart, how long have you lived here?” the smaller one had asked him. The response was one that Sue hated, one she wanted to scream at, walk right up to him and slap the friendly smile right off his face for lying to her.  
“I’ve lived here my whole life, what about you?” 

Sue didn’t scream, nor did she go up and slap him, she walked out. She walked out of the one thing she had wanted for years, because her ex-boyfriend had lied to her and it didn’t even hurt. 

She walked out and felt good, elated even. As though some part of her thought he was lying and it felt good to console that thought and know that she was right. 

Her parents were mad when she came home that day and told her that she walked out, lecturing her that she had sacrificed what she had wanted for so long and worked so hard to get. They didn’t let her off easily, saying that she needed to get a job to pay them back every expense she had cost them to apply for med school. So she did, she got a part time job at a dispatch centre because her parents insisted that she did something for the emergency services and there was no way that she would enroll to be a police officer or firefighter.

The training was okay, but definitely guilt-tripping, reminding Sue that she wasn’t the one who would be doing the actual life-changing work but she guessed it was karma for giving up on her dream.

But when she had completed the training and was sitting in front of the telephone for the first time, she felt like she was where she belonged. She could help people whilst not being with them, and there was no possible awkward moments between her and Stewart, who she probably would have ended up slapping if it wasn’t for the fact that she had walked out, leaving what she thought would be her destiny, only to find it by a telephone. 

By the time her parents had accepted the fact that she had dropped out of med school, Sue had found a place only down the road from the dispatch centre with a grand kitchen, where she made food-gifts for her coworkers on a regular occasion. 

After a few months, Sue began working as a 9-1-1 operator full time, earning employee of the month once during this time. She had found her place in the sector, as her parents had wanted to and as she had wanted to. 

No day was the same, with different people asking for help and Sue helping them stay calm until help got there. 

Each call was a small reminder that she was where she should be.


End file.
